1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a merchandise registration processing system which is utilized at a shop such as a supermarket, a convenience store, etc.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a shop such as a supermarket, a convenience store, etc., the merchandise display space and the settlement place for merchandises are sectionalized. At such a shop, a shopper selects merchandises which the shopper will purchase from among merchandises displayed on the merchandise display space, and puts the merchandises in a shopping basket, then takes the shopping basket to the settlement place. At the settlement place, a settlement device referred to as a POS (Point Of Sales) terminal is arranged. Accordingly, when a shop assistant in charge of the settlement, referred to as a cashier etc., receives an offer of the settlement from the shopper, the shop assistant registers the merchandises which the shopper purchases in the settlement device one by one. The registration is generally performed by making a scanner scan the barcode (merchandise code) put on the merchandises. Then, after registering barcodes of all the merchandises which the shopper purchases, the charge for all the merchandises to be purchased is displayed on a display unit of the settlement device. Then, the shop assistant receives the payment of the charge from the shopper, and gives a receipt to the shopper.
In this way, conventionally, in order to register merchandises which the shopper purchases in the settlement device, the shop assistant picks up the merchandises from the shopping basket one by one, and makes the scanner scan the barcode put on the merchandise, which requires time for the registration.
Accordingly, in order to solve the problem, recently, there has been suggested a merchandise registration processing system utilizing a wireless tag. This system is basically configured by wireless tags which are applied to respective merchandises one by one, a wireless tag reader that reads out information stored in the wireless tags by noncontact communication, and a settlement device such as a POS terminal that performs the settlement processing using information read out by the wireless tag reader. The wireless tag is also referred to as an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag, IC (Integrated Circuit) tag, etc.
This system is provided with a feature that, by using a function of the anticollision, even if a plurality of wireless tags exist in the communication area of an antenna of a wireless tag reader, data can be read in collectively.
Accordingly, for example, as is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 10-049756, in wireless tags applied to respective merchandises, merchandise codes of the merchandises are stored. Furthermore, a wireless tag reader is arranged on the shopping basket placement part of the settlement place. A shopping basket containing merchandises which a shopper purchases is placed on the shopping basket placement part. Then, information of wireless tags applied to the respective merchandises in the shopping basket is collectively read out by the wireless tag reader. Then, information of the respective wireless tags, that is, merchandise codes are registered in a settlement device. Accordingly, there is caused an effect that the time required for the registration work can be considerably reduced.
Furthermore, in the merchandise registration processing system using wireless tags, since the registration of merchandises in the settlement device is automatically performed, for example, as is disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. Publication No. 2003-272057, there has also been suggested a merchandise registration processing system of the self check-out system in which all the settlement works, including the giving and receiving of the charge, are performed by a shopper him/herself.
However, in the conventional merchandise registration processing system using wireless tags, there is a troublesome work of applying wireless tags to all the merchandises to be sold at a shop one by one. Furthermore, there is also a troublesome work of, to respective wireless tags, writing merchandise codes of merchandises to which the wireless tags are applied.